Tuesday, December 06, 2011

There was no iPhone. No iPod. No Internet as we know it. There were no personal computers. Yet. No GPS. Cable was something only the really wealthy and the really lucky could afford. You could still dial a telephone call, but your phone and receiver were landlocked. Cell phones were bricks the weight of a shotput and had to be slung over your shoulder.

And even with all that, we made it to the edge of our Solar System using computers whose power today would fit on a fingernail.

"Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things...every one! So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, 'Liberal,' as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won't work, Senator, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor." -- Matt Santos, The West Wing